Surface Phone: Microsoft’s True Success Might Only Be Seen Years After Foldable Device’s Release

Rumors of the Surface Phone have been abounding for a while now, and while Microsoft has been pretty tight-lipped about the development of its upcoming mobile venture, recent speculations about the device suggest that the Redmond-based tech giant is attempting to break new ground in the mobile industry.

So far, several interesting rumors have emerged about the Surface Phone, including speculations stating that the handset will be the spiritual successor of the Microsoft Courier, a portable stylus-enabled productivity device that was initially conceptualized years ago. While the Courier never made it to production, recent leaks about the Surface Phone seem to indicate that the device will carry over some of the unreleased machine’s design elements and capabilities. If these rumors prove accurate, the Surface Phone might accomplish what Microsoft is really setting out to do with the handset — it might become one of the first entries in an entirely new class of mobile productivity machines.

As noted by Daniel Rubino from Windows Central, however, the fresh take on the mobile industry being implemented by the Surface Phone does not necessarily ensure that the smartphone would be a massive hit once the device gets released. The absence of Microsoft in the mobile industry, after all, has been palpable over the years, and a new venture into what could very well be a new category of productivity machines could easily attract skepticism among smartphone enthusiasts.

With this in mind, there is a pretty fair chance that the Surface Phone, once it does see the light of day, will become a device that would take some time before becoming a true success. The app and developer discrepancy between Windows’ new platform and the duopoly of iOS and Android alone would be a pretty steep hill for Microsoft to climb.

As noted in a Forbes report, Microsoft could easily bridge this gap by making the Surface Phone into a portable machine that is fully compatible with the rest of the company’s Windows desktop-grade ecosystem. Despite this, however, there’s a good chance that it will still take some time before Microsoft’s Surface Phone becomes fully accepted by the mainstream mobile market.

With this in mind, the Surface Phone might go down in mobile tech history as the first device among many to break new ground in the computing industry. While signs of its success might be evident early on, the true disruptive quality of the Surface Phone might very well be seen years down the road.